Saturday, December 11, 2004

VA working to maintain prosthetic support for amputees (12/11/04)

Erick Castro, who lost his left leg in Iraq to a rocket-propelled grenade, really likes the high-tech artificial leg the military gave him.But finding a prosthetic technician near his Santa Ana, Calif., home to help keep it working is a problem.

“I tried going with the Veterans Affairs Department but there wasn’t much experience there,” said Castro, who was an Army sergeant riding in an armored personnel carrier in April 2003 when he was hit. “Instead, the VA actually let me go outside and look for a vendor. Right now, I’m in the process of talking to several of them.”